Sunday, June 26, 2016

(Iraq) A senior Iraqi police commander on Sunday declared the
western city of Fallujah fully liberated from the ISIS terrorist group after a more
than month-long offensive. federal police chief Raed Shaker said Iraqi forces
and the allied Hashd al-Shaabi -- an umbrella group of Iraqi Shia militias --
have managed to liberate the city from ISIS terrorists.

“Security forces have imposed full control of Fallujah after
fierce battles that inflicted heavy losses on ISIS.”

In April, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led warplanes,
launched an offensive to recapture Fallujah from ISIS, which overran the city
in early 2014. Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014,
when ISIS captured the northern city of Mosul and overran large swathes of
territory in the northern and western parts of the country.